We are responsible for our own success! We are not entitled to anything. It took me a long time to figure this out. Most people have this notion that other people are responsible for making our path to the top. Get over it! I had to be responsible for my own actions. It all started with me.

We are 100% responsible for where we are in our lives right now. My mother is not going to do the work for me. My coach is not going to make me better. My teacher is not going to do my reading for me. Tell yourself that you are 100% responsible for your own actions. Until a person engrains that into their soul and being, it is going to be hard. Are you ready?

I want you to ask yourself, “are you ready to take full responsibility in where you are in life right now?” Say it three times in your head. Trust me it will help. Stop blaming others for your current situation, and take responsibility for yourself.

I blamed everyone else for my lack of a solid foundation growing up. I shifted the blame and pointed the finger no matter what the situation was. The reason so many people blame others is because it is the easy way out. People never look in the mirror to see what they can do with the situation that they have before them. One good decision or one bad decision can change a person’s life forever.

Have a deep heart felt talk with yourself right now and tell yourself again, “I am going to take full responsibility for where I am in my life right now!”

Stop making excuses! Tell yourself, “I take full responsibility for everything that is happening to me right now.”

I am going to give you the formula that I read in my friend’s book, which he learned from one his mentors. I could not pass it up because this is exactly how I see the world now.

The formula is E + R = O; Event + Response = Outcome

Now you can use this formula for anything, and here is my interpretation of it, which is similar, but I wanted to share it with you and give credit where it is due.

Now the belief is that every situation or outcome you have experienced in life has led you to the person you are today! It does not matter how old you are, the experiences you have gone through, how much money you have or lack thereof, disabled or at the top of your game.

If you were to look at everything you have done, the result was always going to be up to you. How you handled the situation or responded to that situation led you to where you are right now. Does that make sense?

I am a firm believer of this formula and it works. If you were to go back in time and be able to change your outcome by just reacting differently would it make a difference? How about your response to it? Could you have changed your result to a better one? Of course, but it depends on how you handled it and why you handled it in that particular manner.

Let me make this as clear as possible. If you do not like the results you are getting, there are a couple of choices you can make. Number 1 is you can blame others or things for the outcomes and deflect your own accountability to the issue, situation or event and make more excuses.

Here are some examples you might hear or even tell yourself:

1.My mom and dad were not here for me,

2. My dad went to prison,

3. The economy is not supporting people like me,

4. There is not enough jobs,

5. The kids at school are picking on me,

6. My school does not understand me,

7. I do not have enough time to start,

I am here to tell you that I was in the same boat as you. Until I took full responsibility for my thought processes and actions, nothing changed.

I now tell myself to identify the problem and find its solution instead of blaming others and deflecting responsibility.

I mentioned earlier that it is easy to place blame. Athletes take the time to blame officials. Baseball players like me blamed the bat. If LeBron James blamed his teammates, do you think the Cleveland Cavaliers overcome their 3-1 deficit in the 2016 NBA Finals? If you are in a relationship, it is easy to blame the other person.

People like Steve Jobs, Oprah Winfrey, Denzel Washington, Gary Vaynerchuk, Bill Gates, President Obama, Dr. Dre, the Williams Sisters, and Robert Downey, Jr., would not have achieved what they have achieved in their lives if all they did was place blame on others and not take full responsibility for themselves.

If you were to read their life stories, these people all took action and took personal responsibility. When you stop and think about where you are in life right now, others including myself have overcome worst situations.

Whether you get my point or if your personal situation is really bad, understand that the choice is yours. People throughout the history of mankind have overcome adversities, obstacles, and roadblocks by themselves.

They just figured out how to succeed and 99% of the time it starts with the aforementioned formula.

If you do not like the results you are getting go back to the formula and change the way you are doing things. You might be shocked when you start experiencing different results. If you do not like those results, make the necessary adjustment by changing your thought process and action plan again. The quicker you are able to make the adjustment, the faster you will be able to improve your life.

When you choose to change your belief system, your life will change dramatically. The manner in which you communicate and the way you carry yourself physically will also change. Eventually your old belief system will disappear and others will acknowledge the different image you project. The only thing that will matter is how you perceive yourself. People will gravitate to you when people see a change in your behavior, and I stamp my 100% guarantee on that fact.

Stop allowing external forces, that which is out of your control, govern your life. If you allow those external forces to govern your life, it becomes all too easy to blame those external factors for your shortcomings. The blame game, of which I was guilty of as well, is the weaker path. Choose instead to be accountable for your actions and take ownership of your behaviors in order to change your life for the better.

Each one of us has our own set of attitudes, experiences, and habits. We go on about our day-to-day business more often than not, never truly asking ourselves what is it that we are really doing. Why is it that I have become a robot while life continually passes me by? Ask yourself that question every day and make a conscious effort to change your attitudes and habits. Your dreams, images on all your electronic devices, and your internal self-talk are all sources of you subconsciosus mind that ultimately affect your behavior.

Here is a little secret that might make you transform a little easier!

Everything you do from now on has to be intentionally calculated. What do I mean by that? This drives people around me crazy, but I do everything with PURPOSE. Everything I do is intentionally calculated to purposefully reach my aspirations, dreams, and goals. It does not matter how small or how large the task is because everything is aligned in a manner by which the big picture is always in focus. Take control of your thoughts and put them into actions. TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE BY HAVING PURPOSE!

Please understand that if you do not like your outcomes, you must change how you deal with each event or situation. Do not place blame and do not point fingers at anyone. Tell yourself that you will respond to the situation differently. The hardest thing to do is change yourself for the better, but it will be worth it in the end.

At the time I decided to model my friend’s book, people said I was crazy for wasting all that time. Do you think I wasted my time in writing all that you have read so far? People also said that there was no money in writing books because of the advancements in technology, but I do not care about money in the way I used to. Outside forces like people’s opinions or struggling global economies no longer control my decision-making. Facing adversity head-on and building on good or bad choices that lead to experience will mold you into the kind of person you want to become.

Let us make this very clear. The ability to CHOOSE and the EXPERIENCE therafter go hand in hand. The choices and the experiences after those choices, have made you the person you are today, and you have the choice to make a better you for tomorrow. Change your mindset, make smarter choices, and improve your experiences…..